HYDERABAD: In the end, it wasn’t a high-tech forensic breakthrough or a dramatic eyewitness account that brought him down. It was a folded slip of paper, tucked into the inner lining of a blouse, that helped police track down the man now believed to have murdered dozens of women across Telangana.
That chit, barely holding on to its last digit, would lead investigators to a forgotten missing person’s report, a mason wrongly suspected, and eventually, to a serial offender whose crimes stretch back two decades.
This is the story of Maina Ramulu — a man of many names, many disguises, and, according to police, many victims.
In official records, he appears under at least five identities: Maina Ramulu, Mainam Ramulu, Bottu Ramulu, Ravi and Talari Sailu. On the streets, he was just a small man with a cobra tattoo on his arm.
Now in his late 40s, Ramulu stands just under 5.5 feet tall and is currently serving two concurrent life sentences in Sangareddy prison. His record includes at least 21 known cases, of which 16 are for murder, spanning from 2003 to 2020. Police suspect the actual number of victims could be far higher.
Ramulu hails from a family of daily wage workers in Telangana. He has three brothers, all labourers, and had four sisters, two of whom died post-marriage due to illness. In 1996, at the age of 21, his parents arranged his marriage. But within months, his wife eloped. Police say that was the turning point.
“He developed a deep hatred for women after that,” said the investigating officer, N Chandra Babu who was the station house officer, Ghatkesar and is now posted at Bhongir Circle. “It turned into a pattern — violence, often fatal, against women, especially those from marginalised backgrounds,” he added.
A body by the tracks
The case that brought Ramulu back into focus began on January 4, 2021. A shepherd walking along the Ghatkesar railway line found a woman’s body. Her head was burnt; her remains lay beside the tracks. Ghatkesar police took over the investigation.
The following day, during the postmortem, a constable found a paper slip in the woman’s blouse. It bore a phone number with a few digits faded. Officers called multiple combinations until one call went through.
“If we hadn’t found that chit, we might not have traced her family and not have cracked the case at all,” said Chandra Babu.
A mason and a misdirection
The number led them to Devi Chennaiah, a mason who arranged construction labourers. Initially treated as a suspect, Chennaiah broke down during questioning. “He was terrified, but it was clear that he was not our man,” recalled the then Ghatkesar station writer Simhachalam.
Chennaiah said a woman labourer had gone missing some days earlier. This matched a complaint filed at Jubilee Hills police station on January 1, 2021. CCTV footage near a toddy shop, where the missing woman was last seen, showed her with a masked man. Officers collected footage from bus stops, shops and Metro stations.
At Ameerpet Metro station, the pair were spotted boarding a train to Uppal. They did not interact, except briefly when the woman struggled with a ticket scanner. Later, outside a tiffin centre in Yousufguda, the man briefly lowered his mask to smoke. That was the image that cracked the case.
The photograph was circulated among commissionerates. A Hyderabad Task Force officer recognised the man. It was Ramulu.
The scent of blood
Investigators say Ramulu’s modus operandi was nearly always the same.
“He never conducted a recce the day before committing the offence. Usually, he went for his labour work or some other job in a particular area. While there, he would roam around and observe the surroundings. If he found a place that appeared isolated and unattended, he would register it in his mind,” a senior police officer told TNIE. “He kept a clear idea of such locations. Later, if a woman agreed to go with him, he would take her to one of those spots and commit the murder there,” the officer added.
He would scout toddy shops and wine outlets, identify women, often sex workers or labourers who were alone or vulnerable, and lure them with free liquor.
He would then guide them to isolated areas — empty plots, construction sites, railway tracks — where, after drinking, he would strangle them using their sarees or shawls and steal their jewellery.
“He studied them,” an officer said. “He would observe a woman over two or three days before making contact. He rarely acted impulsively.”
Most of the stolen items were imitation jewellery, but occasionally he got real ornaments. In many cases, the victims were not identified.
The long trail
Police say Ramulu committed his first known murder in 2003 in Toopran, strangling a woman and stealing her anklets. Over the next 16 years, women were found dead across Sangareddy, Dundigal, Kukatpally and Narsingi, all killed in similar fashion.
He was arrested multiple times and convicted in a few cases. In others, he was acquitted due to lack of evidence. Some cases remain unsolved, either due to unidentified victims or unfiled chargesheets.
IO Chandra Babu said that during the questioning Ramulu claimed that he had never raped women.
In 2011, while being treated at Erragadda Mental Hospital, Ramulu escaped with five others. Soon after, two women were found dead. In 2013, he gave police a false name, Talari Sailu from Jagtial, when arrested in a theft case.
Police say his identity-shifting helped him evade scrutiny. “He was in jail for one crime, out for another,” said a senior officer. “And when out, he would kill again,” the officer said.
Ramulu gave contradictory reasons for his crimes. To one officer, he said, “My wife ran away. I kill women because of that.” In another version, he said he only stole ornaments because he had no money. On some occasions, he insisted he didn’t steal at all.
An officer once asked him, “If your wife’s affair was the reason, why haven’t you killed her?” Ramulu had no reply.
Behind bars, but not alone
Now lodged in Sangareddy jail, Ramulu’s trial continues in multiple cases. A police officer said, “Jail isn’t just for punishment. It’s a place where criminals talk, compare notes, and learn how to avoid leaving evidence.”
The same, officers added, happens in police stations too. “When a person is in custody, they often hear how others were caught and what mistakes they made. That influences their next crime.”
One of Ramulu’s sons told TNIE that they had filed multiple bail pleas. “We got tired,” he said. “My father told me that some cases were booked when he was already in jail, but still the police implicated him.”
He added that police once dragged his father away during a family meal. “In one case in Patancheru, he got a life sentence even though there were no witnesses,” the son claimed. A copy of that judgement, dated 16 April, 2024, noted: “There were no eyewitnesses. The case rests on circumstantial evidence.”
‘What about the others?’
Although Ramulu has been convicted in five cases and faces two life sentences, police believe there are more crimes linked to him.
He once asked the IO: “You arrested me for what I confessed. What about the others?”
Some officers suspect that Ramulu might have murdered more than 50 persons over the last 18 years.
But his counsel warns against overreach. “Not every unknown dead body in an isolated area can be linked to him,” the defence said. “Without evidence, the real killer might escape.”